Mati's Mini Books reviews

Tuesday, 26 September 2017

“...you have three of the most important virtues a policeman can have,” he thought.
“You are stubborn and logical, and completely calm.”

What a good, old fashioned crime novel, with a down to earth detective, Martin Beck, and a proper investigation in Sweden in the 60s, with no technology as such, but just investigators using their brains and their feet to find the killer. The crime itself reminded a bit Agatha Christie's as it was committed on a closed environment (a boat) and there are several people that could be the perpetrator for several reasons. Martin Beck is an interesting character, quite moody and depressed, reminded me of Mankell's novels, which of course were written at a later date though.An absolute gen of a crime novel, I surely will read the other nine books of the serie - Roseanna being the first and I would recommend it to readers who like a good, solid, old fashioned mystery book.

“January
7 arrived and looked like January 7. The streets were full of gray, frozen
people without money.”

Overall rating: 7,5 Plot: 7,5 Writing style: 7 Cover: 5

Title: RoseannaAuthor: Maj Sjowall, Per WahlooPublisher: Fourth Estate BooksPages: 304Publication year: 1965Plot:The first book in the classic Martin Beck detective series from the 1960s - the novels that shaped the future of Scandinavian crime writing. Hugely acclaimed, the Martin Beck series were the original Scandinavian crime novels and have inspired the writings of Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbo. Written in the 1960s, 10 books completed in 10 years, they are the work of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo - a husband and wife team from Sweden. They follow the fortunes of the detective Martin Beck, whose enigmatic, taciturn character has inspired countless other policemen in crime fiction; without his creation Ian Rankin's John Rebus or Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander may never have been conceived. The novels can be read separately, but are best read in chronological order, so the reader can follow the characters' development and get drawn into the series as a whole. 'Roseanna' begins on a July afternoon, the body of a young woman is dredged from Sweden's beautiful Lake Vattern. Three months later, all that Police Inspector Martin Beck knows is that her name is Roseanna, that she came from Lincoln, Nebraska, and that she could have been strangled by any one of eighty-five people. The Authors:Per Fredrik Wahlöö (5 August 1926 – 22 June 1975) -and Maj Sjöwall (born September 25, 1935) areSwedish authors, best known for the series of ten novels about the exploits of Martin Beck, a police detective in Stockholm, published between 1965 and 1975.Sjöwall had a 13-year relationship with Wahlöö which lasted until his death in 1975